Stationery company Monami carried out a generational change in its leadership and launched sweeping innovation management. The strategy is to fundamentally improve the organization's constitution amid a rapidly changing industrial environment and secure future growth engines.
Monami said on the 7th that it named Song Ha-gyeong chairman emeritus, promoted President Song Ha-yun to vice chair and CEO, and promoted Head of Planning Song Jae-hwa to president. Chairman Emeritus Song Ha-gyeong is the eldest son of the late founder Song Sam-seok and has led the company for a long time. Vice Chair Song Ha-yun is the younger sibling of Chairman Emeritus Song, and President Song Jae-hwa is Song's son.
Vice Chair Song Ha-yun joined Monami in 1992, rose through senior executive vice president and executive vice president, and was appointed president in 2018, and will continue to lead the company based on an understanding of the business and on-site experience. President Song Jae-hwa, who joined in 2014, plans to focus on establishing future business strategies and securing market competitiveness through the practical capabilities built while overseeing planning.
Behind Monami's generational shift lies a structural crisis across the stationery industry. A combination of factors—including the contraction of offline retail channels, a shift to online-centered distribution, a reorganization of sales networks, a decline in the school-age population, and reduced demand for writing instruments due to digitalization—is pressuring the industry overall.
Monami determined that it would be difficult to overcome these changes with conventional management practices and strengthened its responsiveness by reshuffling the leadership. The new management plans to focus on diversifying the business portfolio, including securing competitiveness in online distribution, entering the digital stationery market, and expanding premium brand strategies.
In particular, to leap to a "100-year corporations," it will focus on securing sustainable growth engines. It will also accelerate the exploration of new businesses to break out of the mold of a traditional stationery manufacturer and reemerge as a total solutions company that encompasses the broader lifestyle.